Explaining being Armenian.

[HyeJinx1984]

Do you guys ever a friend who's not Armenian, usually whites, that don't understand why Armenians do certain things and find them backwards, and then you explain it and they're like "Ooooooh I see." I suppose this problem only happens in Los Angeles where there are a lot of Armenians and people actually take notice.

For example... I was hanging out with my friend John recently who is white and doesn't really identify with any ethnic group. He has other Armenian friends, and began asking me why we do certain things. The first thing he asked was "Why are you guys so strict about marrying into your own race? That seems kinda backwards, you should just marry who you fall in love with" and I had to explain that unlike other cultures/nationalities, we don't exactly have the most stable time in history right now... we just came out of a genocide, so we sorta need to "repopulate" our people, and that won't exactly happen if we marry out too much, not to mention we're a small group as it is. It's not like Chinese people have the fear of waking up tomorrow and having no Chinese people in the world, so they can afford to marry out of their race cause they have enough of a pure gene pool. Then he gave the "OOOOoooooohhh I never thought of it that way" comment

This went on for like an hour. You guys ever have to explain that sort of stuff that seems really obvious but for some reason other people don't get?

[Anonymouse]

No. No I do not. I do not need to explain anything. Of course, except for maybe the big nose thing.

[HyeJinx1984]

Dork. That's genetic, not something cultural that needs to be explained. And yes, I know I know I'm reading into a joke and acting as though I don't get it when I really do but this just an attempt to listen to the sound of my own typing because I loooooooooooove to type, but not only do I love to type, but I love to type run on sentences so let's see how long this run on sentence can be before I'm forced to end it because if it goes on a really really long time that would be kinda cool, not as cool as maybe watching an alligator eat a chevy, but hey could still be cool to kill some time with don't you think cause I do.

Ah, that got my morning off to a good start.

[Anonymouse]

Maybe you should explain to your friends, that Armenians are funnier when they do Armenian humor.

[HyeJinx1984]

LOL yea. Actually, there is sort of a reputation of Armenians being real sour pusses out here... we just try to act hard in front of everyone else is all, lol.

[Harut82]

I had a korean friend (who graduated from GCC) ask me why armenians never fight alone. They always bring thier friends.

Didn't know what to tell him because I've never been in a fight with friends.

[Genuine_Stud]

I was working with a producer on one of the Fox shows who was Jewish and he asked me "So.... do you hate the Turks?"

Here are a few things that I told him.

1) I told him that I don't hate them, despite what I think they did. That everyone is a human being in this world and everyone has their own ideologies and thoughts. Thus, a few Turks actually accepting our Genocide and not denying it.

2) I told him that we need to educate as many Turks about this topic as possible so that they can see the truth behind what they did.

3) I told him that us Armenians and Jews actually do relate to each other because like the Jewish Holocaust, we need to spread the word about our Armenian Genocide so that people know that it exists and that it all starts from small conversations like this. I requested that the next time a topic comes up about Holocausts and Genocides of cultures to also mention our Armenian Genocide as well and just to naturally spread the word out to as many people as he can.

He liked the mature way I thought about the subject matter and was so convinced by what I said that he went and spread the word to many people in his community. He then came back a few days later and said that I was right and that he liked the genuine approach I gave him.

Since then, I haven't blamed Jews or any other race "for this" or "for that" or other things we often blame them stereotypically for. I started looking upon people as individuals even more.

[HyeJinx1984]

Yey! someone else who gets along with Jews on this board! I was afraid I was the only one

Anyway, another thing I had to explain to this guy was why Armenian parents spoil the hell out of their kids (at least, the ones who can afford it). He said he doesn't understand why parents buy their kids the most expensive and top of the line things and all that when the kids themselves should work and get it themselves (Most Armenian kids DO work, but get no where near the salary needed for the stuff they have). He felt this depraved Armenian kids of having charcater, work ethic or valuing money. I told him it's because unlike the generic American culture where a parent's obligation to a child is only 18 years and then expect them to move out and live their own life and come visit on the holidays, Armenians are very family oriented, and "spoiling" their kids is a way of investing in them and giving them all the best in life so they wil be motivated to succeed (which most DO) and then intern take care of their parents in their old age instead of putting them in homes or not taking care of them while at the same time investing in their own children, and the cycle continues. Again there was another "Oooooohh now I get it, I never thought of it that way before"

[nairi]

I quit explaining a long time ago.

[MadHandle]

I don't think I ever explained anything like that to anyone...maybe becuase I don't really have too many "white" friends that I'm around everyday. Most of the people I'm with have a similar background, so they kind of understand where I'm coming from and vice versa. I do occasionaly discuss some topics, but not too often.

Yey! someone else who gets along with Jews on this board! I was afraid I was the only one

Anyway, another thing I had to explain to this guy was why Armenian parents spoil the hell out of their kids (at least, the ones who can afford it). He said he doesn't understand why parents buy their kids the most expensive and top of the line things and all that when the kids themselves should work and get it themselves (Most Armenian kids DO work, but get no where near the salary needed for the stuff they have). He felt this depraved Armenian kids of having charcater, work ethic or valuing money. I told him it's because unlike the generic American culture where a parent's obligation to a child is only 18 years and then expect them to move out and live their own life and come visit on the holidays, Armenians are very family oriented, and "spoiling" their kids is a way of investing in them and giving them all the best in life so they wil be motivated to succeed (which most DO) and then intern take care of their parents in their old age instead of putting them in homes or not taking care of them while at the same time investing in their own children, and the cycle continues. Again there was another "Oooooohh now I get it, I never thought of it that way before"

....I don't know about that. Not in my case though, I gotta work to get the "extra" things I want(the non extra idems are food and clothes lol). Matter a fact, I think most "suburban" kids in North America are way more spoiled...some of them get a car for their birthday . Now thats spoiled. Its good though, not spoiled is a good thing, it makes you appreciate things more and be more understanding.

I do agree with you though, some Armenians are spoiled over the limit. Even back in Armenia people are buying top notch items, specially things like clothes and purses. I rememer I was at a store there called "SPO"(if anyone knows?), they had this fur coat in there that was worth like 300$(I think, maybe more),remeber that was a lot of money back in 96 and they were actually expecting to sell that(and probably did). The girl at the couter even said, "its better to stay warm then to buy an appartment worth the same amount"...I was damn shocked at why people buy a coat when they can get an appartment for that much money. Anway, thats just one of the things Armenians do that labels some as "spoiled". I mean, I could probably stay warmer with a 40$ coat, no one should spend that much money on clothes...other then filthy rich people, no one should.[/QUOTE]